Congressional Record, Volume 131, Number 41, April 3, 1985

Congressional 'Record United States of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 9 9 th CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 131 WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 1985 No. 41 Senate WHAT MADE AMERICA GREAT Mr. HECHT. Mr. President, few his-torians will quarrel with the statement that the United States along with her sister republic, Canada, has delivered to such a large population over a period of 200 years the highest stand-ard of living the world has ever known. Why has Canada and the United States enjoyed such bounty and the rest of the New World from our border southward hasn't done well at all? Some people give various answers?a long coast line, good seaports, abun-dance of raw materials, an energetic population, a good educational system, a temperate climate?rich soil and good rainfall, rivers for irrigation, good water transportation, capitalism, democracy, morality, and more. But all of these things can be found elsewhere. There is only one concept that is unique to the United States and Canada that explains our prosper-ity. Freedom?the capitalistic economic system coupled with freedom from an oppressive government is the secret of our success. When your government allows its citizens to go into business and get rich, the wheels start to turn immedi-ately. Capitalism is known in all coun-tries south of the border but govern-ment restrictions and bureaucratic redtape has stifled their economies and the good life for all but a chosen few. Of course things haven't always been as good in our country as they are today because the technology was not yet invented that has led to our easy life. But United States of Amer-ica has always been the land of milk and honey and people proved it, indeed are still proving it by picking up their families and moving here. But as good as things have been, it is not a perfect system. Everyone isn't rich and some people are hurting. In order to improve on our system some people want to make a law to cure these unequities. So little by little, pressure is put on government to either run the business of the Nation or tell the business how it must do cer-tain things. It's called socialism. It's the only other economic system and for 6,000 years or Recorded history so-cialism has never delivered to its people for very long a decent standard of living. For 90 years now the socialists have been getting stronger in America and putting more restrictions on business. It doesn't matter whether business is restricted by a czar, or a tyrant, a madman, or a bureaucrat elected by the people, the result is just the same. The wheels start to slow down. We may have reached that point. The purchasing power of the average American is down about 1 percent this past decade even though the dollars are worth more and we've hardly no-ticed the decline. 2 It's easy and popular to cuss busi-ness. Almost everybody has been sold a rotten cantaloupe, paid for a repair job that was faulty, or had some quar-rel with a businessman. That is no reason to kill the system that lays the golden egg. There is need for the average citizen to understand business. Socialism seems to be taught in the universities, if not actual dogma in classes then by association with most of the liberal thinkers in America. Business needs a forum to get the other side of the story across. The beginning of such a way sur-faced last year in our State. It is called Business Week. High school juniors are invited to the campus of the Uni-versity of Nevada?Reno for 1 week in June for a seminar on business. All ex-penses including board are paid for the student if he is accepted. He gets a taste of college, a course on American business, and the camaraderie of a group of his peers. Those who attend-ed from Battle Mountain last year spoke highly of their experiences. The people sponsoring the pro-grams? which included about 20 mer-chants and other interested people in Battle Mountain?would like to expand the program this year. It does take money, as do most things now a days. The cost per stu-dent is $195. We believe this is a worthwhile pro-gram and urge all businesses in Battle Mountain to contribute to it. We also think for those that are not business people it is a worthy cause because we all have to live with the system?for-ever, I hope?and young people who will soon be our leaders should under-stand it. On Monday, March 18, at 6:30 p.m., Mr. Max Chilcott from Hawthorne will be at Battle Mountain High School to make a presentation for Business Week. His presentation will include a film of last year's events. Anyone wishing to make a contribu-tion to this effort can contact the office at the high school, Battle Moun-tain Auto Parts, or any member of Women in Mining.